In mining, many operations follow similar procedures, such as excavating or loading, for instance. The same sequence of actions has to be repeatedly executed. This gives a high potential for the application of autonomous systems. Yet, most machines currently used in mining (shovel excavators, trucks, etc.) are manually operated.
An autonomous system requires tasks such as perceiving the environment, processing the data, reasoning and deriving applicable actions from the internal knowledge and, finally, executing these actions. The task of perceiving the environment generally comprises determining a two- or three-dimensional model of the environment.
Typically, sensors, such as optical, radar or acoustic sensors, are employed for the perception task. Yet, the selection of appropriate sensors which, on the one hand, provide sufficient information and, on the other hand, are affordable in terms of cost is often times difficult. Further aspects relevant in the selection of appropriate sensors are their operability as well as their mounting complexity.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved method and device for determining an N+1-dimensional environmental model. It is a further object of the present invention to provide an improved mining apparatus.